PORTLAND YOUTH PHILHARMONIC RELEASES DIGITAL ALBUM OF PREMIERE WORKS BY BELOVED PORTLAND COMPOSER TOMÁŠ SVOBODA
Posted on January 13, 2023
PORTLAND, OR – Portland Youth Philharmonic, the nation’s first and longest-running youth orchestra, has just released a digital album showcasing performances of musical masterworks by Portland’s legendary Czech-born composer Tomáš Svoboda. Mr. Svoboda, who passed away earlier this year, was and remains a Portland icon. In partnership with PARMA Recordings, today we celebrate this wonderful composer, his family, and his legacy through Tomáš Svoboda Premiere Recordings. Visit portlandyouthphil.org/svoboda to listen; the album is available to stream on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, and YouTube.
The track list includes Tomáš Svoboda’s lost Symphony No. 2, which PYP premiered in November 2016, at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Mr. Svoboda visited PYP rehearsals in 2016, and heard his symphony performed for the first time, more than half a century after he wrote it in Czechoslovakia.
“Premiering music by Tomáš Svoboda over several years was a great honor,” says PYP Musical Director David Hattner. “I will never forget Mr. Svoboda visiting rehearsal and hearing his 2nd Symphony played for the first time by the orchestra. He was clearly moved to hear the notes he had written in the 1960s finally brought to life. This further inspired the musicians to give the wonderful performance that you will hear on this release.”
Originally scheduled to premiere in his hometown of Prague in 1964, the performance was cancelled when Mr. Svoboda and his parents fled an oppressive Stalinist dictatorship. Since the piece’s inception, Mr. Svoboda maintained that the symphony is about two things: “love and war.” He dedicated the piece to his wife of 55 years, printmaker and educator Jana Demartini.
“Opening the album are performances of Mr. Svoboda’s Folk Concertino for Seven Instruments and his Six Variations for Violin and String Orchestra, for which Mr. Svoboda was also present,” continues Hattner. “I am also pleased that we were able to include a performance of Mr. Svoboda’s Child’s Dream that was led by my great predecessor Jacob Avshalomov as part of this release of the Portland Youth Philharmonic.”
In a program note about Six Variations by Thomas Stangland, Mr. Svoboda is quoted for saying “the flavor of these playful variations is reminiscent of the neo-baroque style and a polyphonic approach is evident in each movement.”
Child’s Dream was commissioned by the Portland Youth Philharmonic for its 50th Anniversary and premiered in 1974. Mr. Svoboda wrote that “the poetry used in the composition was a result of a school project to “Write a poem about your dream”.
“Mr. Svoboda is an Oregon treasure,” reflects Hattner. “Not only for his long catalog of compositions, but also for the students he taught and inspired for decades at Portland State University.”
Program notes and more information about the album can be found at portlandyouthphil.org/svoboda.